Librarians gathered together for a one-day conference on ARLD Day 2012 (27 April) in Minnesota to engage, discuss and connect on the theme “Transliteracy: Constructing Knowledge and Networks“. The conference, presented by the Academic and Research Libraries Division, covered a wide range of topics about bridging gaps across the different information tools, communication platforms and how it can all fit together.

Lane Wilkinson, Assistant professor and reference and instruction librarian at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, whom you may recall in “21st-Century Learning – Libraries and Transliteracy” advocated a new literacy taxonomy, was the keynote speaker. Lane shared his views on what is transliteracy? In his words, “Transliteracy is the ability to communicate meaning between media. … Transliteracy helps us promote literacy across technological barriers.”

Some of the issues discussed in his session included why is transliteracy relevant to librarians? What do librarians impart to students when they graduate? How can librarians encourage transliteracy by adopting programming and teaching strategies that promote skill transfer across media? How to engage with your faculties to include transliteracy skills? The Q&A session at the end of the presentation was particularly valuable as academic librarians share and exchange their experiences, problems, etc. in coping with transliteracy. It was a good presentation with lots of food for thought and I would encourage all academic librarians to go take a look at it. Here’s the presentation link.